Pre-School

“We have been delighted with the care and attention that our child receives at Acorns and he couldn’t be happier. A fun learning environment in great surroundings.”

Acorns Pre-school is a friendly pre-school with a family feel situated in Christian Malford.  It is a rural pre-school with direct access to nearby meadows and woodland but within easy reach of Malmesbury, Chippenham, Lyneham and Calne. 

Acorns Pre-School is part of Christian Malford Primary School. The school and preschool are part of the Diocese of Bristol Academies Trust and is governed by the School's Academy Council. It benefits from highly qualified and experienced staff and close links to the school and local community.

Our aim is to offer children from aged 2 to 5 years the opportunity to learn through play in a fun and happy learning environment, enabling them to become confident, independent learners for life.

We achieve this by providing a safe stimulating environment where children are able to benefit from free flow play and a balance of child initiated and adult planned activities. We operate a key person system which allows us to plan for each child’s individual needs, ensuring that we are aware of each child’s stage of development and that they are progressing through the seven areas of learning.

We welcome children from their second birthday until they start school.

Opening Hours

Acorns Pre-school is open from 8.30am until 3pm Monday to Friday during term time. 

Within our opening hours, we offer flexible hours to meet the needs of parents while also ensuring the children are able to settle well in the Pre-school environment

Fees

Our fees are £7.50 per hour for under 3’s and £5.25 per hour for over 3’s.  Fees are charged termly in advance.  

As an optional extra your child can have a cooked lunch prepared from locally sourced produce. This is an additional charge.

Free Entitlement for Two, Three and Four Year Olds

15 hours funding is available for 2 year olds of working parents or those in receipt of qualifying benefits subject to eligibility

All 3 and 4 year old children are currently eligible for free Nursery Education for 15 hours a week, 38 weeks a year from the term after their third birthday.  The funding terms are set out nationally as follows:
Autumn term: 1 September – 31 December
Spring term: 1 January – 31 March
Summer term: 1 April – 31 August

The 15 hours must be spread over a minimum of three days with a maximum of 12.5 hours in two days and a minimum of 2.5 hours.  Anything over and above 2.5 hours is flexible. The hours can be shared between two settings (three settings when a child has complex needs and a District Specialist Centre is one of them).   Funding is provided by Wiltshire Council direct to the Pre-school. Acorns are also able to offer 30 hours free childcare for those eligible.

Use the link to see what help you might be able to get with pre-school fees https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/ and https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/child-care